And reality unfolds
Once again, abstract thoughts are abound in my noggin. So here's some more.
The other day I started thinking about a nice little project for myself to work on. Basically it involves coding a beat matching algorithm into Winamp so that it can generate playlists from your music that involve "sensible" transitions. What do I mean? It pisses me off when I listen to my Last.fm radio and I go from a heavy electronica song to...Roy Orbison. I mean, c'mon! So I started imagining all the ways I could analyze the beat structure of songs so that I can compare it with other songs. Long story short, it'll be a nice way for me to re-introduce myself into C/C++, work on signal analysis, and perhaps prepare myself for another job opportunity (audio/physics game programmer in Montreal...oh la la).
What interest does this have to anyone other than very few people I know? Nothing, or they are interested and it just goes way over their heads. Why so? Perhaps it's differing interests, a lot of it is not caring, but there is one elusive element I'm trying to capture. The idea that really is stuck in my head is (once again) about making decisions and how people do it. Given the same information about a situation, and one highly likely event, people will still try to predict the opposite. Look the the lottery I suppose. Perhaps it comes down to people thinking always in human terms, instead of objectifying situations more. When someone buys a lottery ticket, they must think they have a decent chance at winning, or why bother? Why would you have a decent chance? Either you don't know the odds are utterly stacked against you, or you must think that there must be something unique about your situation in particular, in that you somehow deserve this win more than everyone else. Perhaps this abstraction to realize that there is no favourite, there is no one special in the system (unless they cheat, but it's a moot point), in these cases you got nothing more than the next guy.
Ok, so other than these situations where there is no bias, how does one evaluate their perspective chances at something? Well, a friend told me a quote, "People judge themselves on what they can do, other people judge them on what they have done in the past." All nice and heartwarming, but my response was, "So whose right?" Her response was, "Well they both are because it's a matter of perspective." Hogwash I say! If there are two judgments on something I'm going to do, then one has to be right if they are unique. Once again, this about the realms of possibility and probability. One is just looking at pure possibilities and then applying no bias, or a false bias towards it. Just because you favour something, doesn't mean that it's actually favoured. But if something happens repeatedly, and it is defined by an agent (i.e. a person/animal/something that makes actions), I am going to throw it out there that it's favoured. If I have gone out for beers every Friday, then it's almost damn certain I will again this Friday! Sure it's not concrete, for certain, but it's damn likely.
I think too many people look to the extremes for rules. You'll never find anything interesting beyond unique cases at the extremes. Look how many people win the lotto, not many. Sure change is possible, but not without precedent. Even then, it tends to repeat itself, so is it really that unpredictable?
In terms of a conclusion, I can only start thinking about what divides us. Sure, everyone always says, think about what brings us together, not separates us. Bah, I'm a mathematician, it's the same difference, it's just a way to define the sets. What is it? Perhaps it is among some of the realizations that I have wrote, and if so, what are the causes of these? Intelligence is the only thing I can think of. Well, a certain type of intelligence anyways, and I feel that it isn't being developed enough. Only with true realization can we get out of this loop. A single person isn't special in the eyes of the universe, or no more special than anyone else. The universe doesn't tilt in your favour just because you are you. No, it does so with what you do and how you do it. My conclusion? Don't rely on possibility and chance to work out for you, make it happen. Or at least, don't be stupid about it.
As I say though, I'm the devil's advocate.
EDIT: I apologize for my rambling a bit there. After a re-read, some of the logical and personal jumps were very awkward. I had meant to say not only have my highly technical conversations been treated with less than enthusiastic opinions, but I've had debates where people try to assert certain falsehoods or unlikelihoods. So it tells me that a certain way of thinking just isn't popular. That should make more sense now.
----------------
Now playing: Nightmares on Wax - Groove St.
The other day I started thinking about a nice little project for myself to work on. Basically it involves coding a beat matching algorithm into Winamp so that it can generate playlists from your music that involve "sensible" transitions. What do I mean? It pisses me off when I listen to my Last.fm radio and I go from a heavy electronica song to...Roy Orbison. I mean, c'mon! So I started imagining all the ways I could analyze the beat structure of songs so that I can compare it with other songs. Long story short, it'll be a nice way for me to re-introduce myself into C/C++, work on signal analysis, and perhaps prepare myself for another job opportunity (audio/physics game programmer in Montreal...oh la la).
What interest does this have to anyone other than very few people I know? Nothing, or they are interested and it just goes way over their heads. Why so? Perhaps it's differing interests, a lot of it is not caring, but there is one elusive element I'm trying to capture. The idea that really is stuck in my head is (once again) about making decisions and how people do it. Given the same information about a situation, and one highly likely event, people will still try to predict the opposite. Look the the lottery I suppose. Perhaps it comes down to people thinking always in human terms, instead of objectifying situations more. When someone buys a lottery ticket, they must think they have a decent chance at winning, or why bother? Why would you have a decent chance? Either you don't know the odds are utterly stacked against you, or you must think that there must be something unique about your situation in particular, in that you somehow deserve this win more than everyone else. Perhaps this abstraction to realize that there is no favourite, there is no one special in the system (unless they cheat, but it's a moot point), in these cases you got nothing more than the next guy.
Ok, so other than these situations where there is no bias, how does one evaluate their perspective chances at something? Well, a friend told me a quote, "People judge themselves on what they can do, other people judge them on what they have done in the past." All nice and heartwarming, but my response was, "So whose right?" Her response was, "Well they both are because it's a matter of perspective." Hogwash I say! If there are two judgments on something I'm going to do, then one has to be right if they are unique. Once again, this about the realms of possibility and probability. One is just looking at pure possibilities and then applying no bias, or a false bias towards it. Just because you favour something, doesn't mean that it's actually favoured. But if something happens repeatedly, and it is defined by an agent (i.e. a person/animal/something that makes actions), I am going to throw it out there that it's favoured. If I have gone out for beers every Friday, then it's almost damn certain I will again this Friday! Sure it's not concrete, for certain, but it's damn likely.
I think too many people look to the extremes for rules. You'll never find anything interesting beyond unique cases at the extremes. Look how many people win the lotto, not many. Sure change is possible, but not without precedent. Even then, it tends to repeat itself, so is it really that unpredictable?
In terms of a conclusion, I can only start thinking about what divides us. Sure, everyone always says, think about what brings us together, not separates us. Bah, I'm a mathematician, it's the same difference, it's just a way to define the sets. What is it? Perhaps it is among some of the realizations that I have wrote, and if so, what are the causes of these? Intelligence is the only thing I can think of. Well, a certain type of intelligence anyways, and I feel that it isn't being developed enough. Only with true realization can we get out of this loop. A single person isn't special in the eyes of the universe, or no more special than anyone else. The universe doesn't tilt in your favour just because you are you. No, it does so with what you do and how you do it. My conclusion? Don't rely on possibility and chance to work out for you, make it happen. Or at least, don't be stupid about it.
As I say though, I'm the devil's advocate.
EDIT: I apologize for my rambling a bit there. After a re-read, some of the logical and personal jumps were very awkward. I had meant to say not only have my highly technical conversations been treated with less than enthusiastic opinions, but I've had debates where people try to assert certain falsehoods or unlikelihoods. So it tells me that a certain way of thinking just isn't popular. That should make more sense now.
----------------
Now playing: Nightmares on Wax - Groove St.
posted by Poshy at 11:50 AM
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